Africa has a right to claim reparations, says Niger historian

Africans could claim a "Marshall Plan" that would allow them to set the foundations for an economic take-off by investing heavily in health, education, roads, agriculture and water, Niger historian Djibo Hamani said on Thursday in Niamey.

"I think that Africans have the right to claim reparations from European countries for the 60 million African slaves taken to America from the 16th to 19th century, and for the colonization and forced labour,\" he said during a public debate on the Italian compensation to Libya for the colonisation inflicted to the country.

The European Union and the USA should pay for the Marshall Plan and Brazil should participate in it, he said.

It was enough for those countries "to pay to Africa a little less than what they spend on their dogs and domestic cats”, he said.

Hamani said that is “enough to radically change the face of this continent that was robbed, wounded, enslaved and exploited for hundreds of years”.